Free software is simply software that respects our freedom — our freedom to learn and understand the software we are using. Free software is designed to free the user from restrictions put in place by proprietary software, and so using free software lets you join a global community of people who are making the political and ethical assertion of our rights to learn and to share what we learn with others.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Free media-sharing system picking up steam

Who hasn't gotten excited about a new Internet service, only to discover that it falls short on free software values?

The Web is full of services for posting, sharing and commenting on media, but most of them require you to run nonfree software or share your data with third parties on their terms. It seems like these problems are just getting worse, with more and more of our media and personal information hoarded in the hard drives of a few giant corporations, and previous uses of nonfree Flash being replaced with nonfree JavaScript. Determined to find a better way, FSF member Chris Webber started the GNU MediaGoblin project. He's leading a community team to write a next-generation social web system where users will share their experiences through photos, videos and audio, all without running proprietary software or centralizing personal data in the hands of a corporation.

Right now MediaGoblin is partially developed, but the team needs financial support so that they can quit their day jobs for a year and perfect MediaGoblin's features to a professional level. The FSF believes their project is important to the future of the Internet and free software, so we're partnering with them to launch a crowdfunding campaign, complete with creative prizes for donors (give $350, and Chris will make you a 3D-print of Gavroche the goblin, the project's cute mascot).

Can you help us out by spreading the word about MediaGoblin, and, ideally, pitching in some cash? You can donate here:

MediaGoblin's goal is to raise $60,000. With that modest amount, Chris thinks MediaGoblin can be ready to use in a year. We'll continue to follow its development after the fundraising effort, and we'll keep you all posted. If this works, then a year from now, we'll be posting pictures online and sharing them with our friends, all with free software!